Will Democrats have a credential fight over Florida and Michigan delegates?

byRobert Nagleon2/6/2008

I am happy to report that Democratic presidential candidates will finally be coming to Texas to fight it out. For most of my adult life in Texas, I’ve never seen Texas as a battleground state (even in the primaries).

If no candidate has a majority of the delegates coming in, we are going to see what are called “credentials fights.” Michigan has already elected delegates (mostly for Clinton and Romney) and Florida will soon do so. Guaranteed these folks are going to show up at the convention and asked to be seated as full delegates. Then the credentials committee will hear their cases and decide what to do. Both delegations will say: “Hey, guys, we are from a large swing state. You want to win our state in November, better seat us to show the folks back home you care about us.” If most of the disputed Democrats support, say, Clinton, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Clinton supporters on the credentials committee will vote to seat them and Obama supporters will say: “Rules are rules and you knowingly violated DNC rules; tough luck and don’t do it in 2012.” The committee could easily be deadlocked and the fight could spill out onto the convention floor.

This comes from electoral-vote, probably the most user-friendly election map (plus commentary) about this year’s election.